Went there with my youngest today to catch Penguins of Madagascar and the friendly employee told me that they had reached an agreement with the property owner and will be upgrading soon with “new seats and digital projection”. Digital conversion starts in the next couple weeks. Did not get any clarification if the new seats would be the recliners.

I am happy the Factoria will have new life but sad about the loss of 35mm and that the theater will lose some SRO-ness.

If AMC is investing in upgrading the theater I wonder if they will finally take down the confusing Cineplex Odeon signage outside. Aside from the box-office there is nothing that says AMC on the exterior of the theater. Last time I went a confused patron walked up to the box office and asked where the AMC Loews theater was located, not knowing he had already found it.

The Cinerama plays day and date with AMC and Regal multiplexes less than a mile away and also the 21+ Big Picture screening room a few blocks away. The next Hunger Games will play one at one of the multiplexes on several screens and likely and the Big Picture as well. So the seat reduction is not too big a deal. I have rarely seen it sell out. The added legroom will probably increase ticket sales even with a reduced seat count (as it has for AMC). Adding beer and wine will also certainly add revenue and ticket sales as well.

I only wish it had opened in time to play Interstellar in 5/70. Hopefully they will get a print for one of their 70mm festivals (if they kept the equipment!!!)

Thanks Danny – so is everything presented in 1.90:1 and cropped? The only Digital IMAX presentation I have seen (at an AMC) was Thor: The Dark World. It seemed letterboxed on the screen but not to full 2.35.

I am curious if a 2.35 film would appear roughly the same size on the Chinese IMAX screen as it was on the old Chinese screen.

Seems odd because there is an Arclight (direct competition) just around the corner from the Chinese. Why would they attempt to book desired films at the Chinese when they weigh preference on the Arclight/Cinerama Dome?

I wish Landmark had had the some reaction to community support when they shut the NuWilshire in Santa Monica, Rialto in Pasadena, Egyptian in Seattle, etc. It seems that rather than having a chain of cozy art house theaters as they want to be another Arclight with venues like The Landmark in West LA.

I have never seen anything Veronica Mars or Tyler Perry so I have no bias for or against them. Just going by basic numbers and trends. There was once a conservative film critic on the radio who railed against a film that I can’t remember but it obviously was against his principles and he hammered on the film as a “bomb” that “didn’t crack the top 10”. It was a limited art house release and it was disingenuous of him – he knew better – so I called him out on it. Ever since then I try to defend the relativity of “success”.

raysson – what you are not noticing is that Veronica Mars was a limited release at only 291 theaters but had a per screen average of $6233 which was higher than almost everything in the top 10 including 300. With its $2 million take opening weekend against a $6 million budget and factoring in VOD, DVD and other revenue streams this film will make a tidy profit. A film does not need to open in the mega-millions to be considered a success.